Older cubers discussions

[SpartanSailor]

Just had a brief chat with my son... and we are headed to the Pennsylvania 2018 comp, Aug 17-19. It’s a 3-day event and we are staying AT the host hotel. I’ll be busy as I’m signed up for FMC and MBLD for the first time, as well as a laundry list of usuals and a few others... I’m going to make an attempt of some sort at every event that I can “do”.

THAT said... My primary focus is in the BLD arena. For me that means 3 BLD and my first official attempt at MBLD. I’ll spend some time after tomorrow’s event trying to determine my approach to MBLD. I’d like to submit 4 cubes with an honest shot at getting three of them. Early thoughts... I may go for 3/3 or 3/4... I have a month to practice and prepare.

FMC is just for fun since MBLD is the first day and nothing else I regularly compete is until day 2. I’m not going to worrry about it, instead, I’ll just do my “normal” solution and take notes. I’ll convert xyz moves into their FRU equivalent. For example, rather than a y cube rotation and R, I’ll just work it out as a B move.

I’d like to get a sub-20 single and a decent 3x3 ao5 before the end of 2018. Decent = sub-21 or sub-20 even, but I don’t know if that will actually happen in August.

I still have tomorrow and another comp next weekend in Fredericksburg, VA, before this event.

interesting point: I started learing 3BLD as a personal challenge to add something new to my practice. I had NO IDEA I would enjoy it so much. Between now and Aug 17, my primary focus will be dialing in my 3BLD time/technique. I want to add a few more advanced items to my M2 3BLD practice. Of course, I would like to do amazing in every event, but reality tells me that if I don’t focus on one that I’ll just perform poorly in all.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to Pennsylvania in August. My wife may actually come to this one. Although she will spend the days antique shopping. LOL

 

[Tabe]

Any of my fellow oldies have the Megaminx V2M from Xman? I am not really into Megaminx, but when I do get on a run, I get a little frustrated with the different edges moving when not desired. My guess is that the magnets would be beneficial much like in 4x4, 5x5 and 6x6. I have found that having magnets in bigger cubes has made a huge difference in my enjoyment to solve them (timed or slowly just for fun). Mis-aligned layers and related lockup’s are just not enjoyable.

My question is whether or not the Magentic version is worth the cost?

ABSOLUTELY.

The V2M is miles better than every other mass-produced megaminx. The only one close is the V1M from Cubicle Labs. Those are much more rare and expensive, however. They're nearly equal in performance and then it boils down to just preference in size (v1 being larger).

Bottom line: If you like megaminx, get the V2M. Worth every penny.

 

[pglewis]

I’d like to submit 4 cubes with an honest shot at getting three of them. Early thoughts... I may go for 3/3 or 3/4... I have a month to practice and prepare.

Keep in mind 2/2 is almost assuredly better than 3/4, since the tie breakers are least time followed by fewer failed puzzles.

Day 2 landed me 1/2, 14:34 (10:24/4:11). First cube was memo'ed strong enough to stick and it was a success. Second cube was executed first, I got all the corners but off by two flipped edges plus a 3 cycle. Memo felt painfully slow and I still had plenty of time to review again if I'd wanted/needed.

Edit: Review might have caught an edge I memo'ed the wrong sticker on but my attitude is "just don't do that" instead. Otherwise, no issues with memory; I traced wrong and probably an execution error or two, but what I actually memo'ed held. Looks like I'll be graduating to a 3 cube daily attempt soon.

 

[newtonbase]

Looks like I'll be graduating to a 3 cube daily attempt soon.

A thought on MBLD is to not wait to get n/n before you add cubes. I made a LOT of attempts at 4 before getting them all but got 5 on my 2nd attempt. It made me realise that you can be capable of success without actually succeeding and it's that capability that we are training for. So, if you are trying to increase your capacity, don't waste time on a number you are sure you can do.

 

[One Wheel]

Any of my fellow oldies have the Megaminx V2M from Xman? I am not really into Megaminx, but when I do get on a run, I get a little frustrated with the different edges moving when not desired. My guess is that the magnets would be beneficial much like in 4x4, 5x5 and 6x6. I have found that having magnets in bigger cubes has made a huge difference in my enjoyment to solve them (timed or slowly just for fun). Mis-aligned layers and related lockup’s are just not enjoyable.

My question is whether or not the Magentic version is worth the cost?

I'm a big fan of magnetic puzzles, and I bought the Galaxy v2 before the magnetic version was released with the intention of magnetizing it. Surprisingly enough, for the time being I've pretty well decided that it's not worth upgrading to the magnetic version (which would be cheaper than buying the magnets to add to my current puzzle. The Galaxy v2 really is a fantastic puzzle, and the magnetic version is actually really reasonably priced.

 

[openseas]

FMC is just for fun since MBLD is the first day and nothing else I regularly compete is until day 2. I’m not going to worrry about it, instead, I’ll just do my “normal” solution and take notes. I’ll convert xyz moves into their FRU equivalent. For example, rather than a y cube rotation and R, I’ll just work it out as a B move.

@SpartanSailor / You may want to use the rotation directly. It will make yourself less confusing & less time consuming effort. FMC notation is very easy - [u ] is a rotation same as U turn direction, [f] is a rotation same as F turn direction, [r] is a rotation same as R turn direction. You may want to check OBTM & FMC section in WCA regulations.

 

[Mike Hughey]

@SpartanSailor / You may want to use the rotation directly. It will make yourself less confusing & less time consuming effort. FMC notation is very easy - [u ] is a rotation same as U turn direction, [f] is a rotation same as F turn direction, [r] is a rotation same as R turn direction. You may want to check OBTM & FMC section in WCA regulations.

@SpartanSailor - You can do what @openseas suggests, and indeed it might be best for a first FMC attempt. But if you are able to do as you suggested, converting into the right moves, you'll help yourself get better at the event for the future, so I recommend you do that if you can.

I find that it's really easy to work that way because I'm mostly a blindfold solver. I don't pay attention to what side I'm turning based on how I'm holding the cube - I pay attention to what side I'm turning based on the color of the side. And I use my BLD orientation always when working with FMC solves, so I hold my cube blue on top, red in front, white on bottom (yes, I have a weird color scheme), so that I have no trouble at all knowing what side I'm turning based on the color of the center on that side.

Rotations are fine in FMC for a beginner, but it doesn't take long before they really slow you down. So if you'd like to ever get good at FMC, I recommend you try to go straight for writing down U D R L F B. I guess I'd say if you're going in cold without practicing at all, maybe do as openseas suggests. But if you think you might do a practice solve or two (may I suggest you might try a couple on our weekly competition ), then give it a try without the rotations and see if they work for you.

Edit: In case it's not clear, I should point out that I always do FMC solves color-neutral (as does almost everyone - it's very costly not to). So although I will always use my color scheme to determine what move to write down, I might be solving with "cross" on any color. My color scheme choice is only for determining what move to write down.

 

[bubbagrub]

+1 to what Mike said. There are two good reasons for this:

1. It makes doing insertions, NISS and other more advanced FMC stuff possible.
2. It's so good to be able to look at the cube from any angle and just know, with certainty, that the turn you're doing is F (because it's green) or L (because it's orange) without having to worry about what rotations you've done so far.

BTW: one nice side-effect of using WCA orientation (white on top, green on front) if you do, is that Blue is B and Red is R, so remembering those comes for free, in a sense. And it's not too hard to remember White is U, and so the others are just the opposites.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Managed to miss the second round by a single place today in 3x3. Lol... and it was my worst 3x3 day in as long as I can recall.

On the other hand, my goal of sub-4 for 3BLD went well. Got 4:07 then 3:30.... then timed out (10 min cumulative limit) for a DNF on my final attempt. So, I’m quite pleased no matter what else happens today. In fact, I am taking all the other events as just fun anyway.

 

[pglewis]

A thought on MBLD is to not wait to get n/n before you add cubes. I made a LOT of attempts at 4 before getting them all but got 5 on my 2nd attempt. It made me realise that you can be capable of success without actually succeeding and it's that capability that we are training for. So, if you are trying to increase your capacity, don't waste time on a number you are sure you can do.

If I hadn't already decided to go for three in today's practice your post would have pushed me over the edge .

I've only been doing one 3bld solve most days for a while, probably 5 solves a week just to keep rust from forming. Given the variety of mistakes in my first attempt I thought I'd need a bit more remedial practice. But neither memory nor time were issues on the 1/2 and I think those are the only reasons not to keep adding another.

my goal of sub-4 for 3BLD went well. Got 4:07 then 3:30.

Well done again, congrats!

 

[openseas]

On the other hand, my goal of sub-4 for 3BLD went well. Got 4:07 then 3:30.... then timed out (10 min cumulative limit) for a DNF on my final attempt. So, I’m quite pleased no matter what else happens today. In fact, I am taking all the other events as just fun anyway.

Congrats! always exciting to achieve your goals!

 

[pglewis]

My GTS3 M arrived yesterday, I'm sure there will be plenty of reviews and nearly everyone will have one. Quick take:

OOTB: Extremely dry as other reviews mention and some spring noise on all six faces. I tuned with Lubicle Speedy on the springs and a few drops of Speedy plus DNM-37 on the edges and worked it in.

Shades: Excellent IMO. orange/white/green are very close to the GTS2, red and blue are a lot darker, and yellow is a fluro yellow fairly close the Valk 3.

Magnets: Strongest feeling magnets of any of my magnetic cubes, including the HuangLong. I'm not sure what I'll think about it for 3x3, I've preferred weaker magnets so far and I find I overshoot U2 in the heat of battle because it needs a fair bit of relative initial force and the 2nd turn needs less due to inertia. Particularly noticeable with H and Z perms because the overshoot is good for jamming the M slices.

Sculpt: I suspect this will initially be a mixed bag on tastes but I'm gonna say "potential game changer for future puzzles". I've never had chronic grip problems with stickerless but I know some people do. It's definitely subtle but I do feel the ridges, I have the feeling going back to other stickerless 3x3s after long sessions with this puzzle will feel weird, it may be one of those things like magnets where once I've tried it there's no going back.

This has early high potential to usurp the GTS2 M for me for 3x3. There is obviously a lot of room for tension tweaks which I've barely explored and inaccurate turning tends to adjust itself. For 3bld it's likely instant main, between the magnet strength to avoid accidental layer turns and the grip reassurance. Would be a pricey platform for mbld... and as soon as I amassed a fleet of them, something I like better would come out anyway .

 

[h2f]

About FMC what @Mike Hughey and @bubbagrub wrote. It takes a little effort to get used to write solutions without rotations even if one does rotations during solve.

Going back to big blindes and 588 Project. First ever mo3 in 5bld: 15:46.81. Memo is poor - around 9 minutes on average but I'm happy with it.

 

[adimare]

Just got back from my first speedsolving competition since 2011. There are a lot of very fast kids here, but they are either very new to BLD or don't like it at all, so I actually had a chance to get the BLD NR. My plan was to go for a safe solve in the first attempt, then try for fast times in the other two. Well, that failed miserably; even after reviewing memo like 3 times in the first two solves I got DNFs (memo was wrong in both attempts, I keep confusing orange with red). Really wanted to get sub 1 min, but decided to try a super safe solve in the 3rd attempt. Ended up getting a 2:31 success, which was still good enough for the NR . I thought I'd be disappointed if I didn't get sub 1 min, but just getting a success felt amazing.

 

[SpartanSailor]

At the end of the day, I got PB singles in every event—even 3x3 (by the narrowest of margins, but still NOT sub-20 official single). In addition to 3x3 and 3BLD, I did 4x4 today and got a 1:09 official PB single and then surprised myself with a 2:57 PB single for 5x5 (yes, I’m slow) and the limit was 3:15. My first 5x5 attempt was 3:23 and would have been a competition PB, but registered as a DNF since I exceeded the time limit.

 

[mark49152]

Congrats @SpartanSailor and @adimare!

 

[openseas]

Day 1 finished @ Tacoma, WA, another mental breakdown.

Total of 8 DNF / 9 Solved cubes, at least, avoided the worst outcome.

2 attempts for 4 & 5 BLD, each, just targeted for a safe success but failed by 1~2 cycles per each attempt. Close for all 4 but 95 or 99% doesn’t give you any score but 0 point. 5 BLD 2nd was all good except the parity alg:-(

3BLD, barely made success & 2nd round chance for tomorrow. I’m at ~70% coverage of corner comms but need more drill for a faster execution. So, not expecting any decent time for a while until I have a full confidence in fast exec.

MBLD was not that bad, 8/10, first official 10 Cube try. 1 missed by a flipped edge, 2nd by incorrect recall - executed backward but was not correct. I did 10th cube as a normal 3BLD run (not using a room) - it worked, first time in an official attempt.

Tomorrow, last attempts for 4,5 & MBLD, really hope to have a 5 BLD success. There are 2 more rounds of 3BLD but I’m not even close to top 8, so, the 2nd round will be it for me. Hoping to have more than one success (never had 2 successes in any official BLD rounds.) for MBLD, will try 11 cubes.

 

[pglewis]

1/3 on mbld yesterday without time crunch or memory failures.

1/4 today, same: 31:20 (21:00/10:20). Might try 5 tomorrow.

 

[pglewis]

A couple thoughts since this is new to me.

I'm executing the last cube first then in order of memo from there, so execution order for four: 4, 1, 2, 3. This isn't causing problems so far and seems to be working. I don't exactly do the last cube like 3bld but I can definitely memo it much faster than the others.

I'm still memo'ing corners/edges and executing edges/corners like I do in 3bld. This threw me off on one cube today as I started executing corner memo on the edges. I think attempting to undo that was the source of failure for that one (also one of the culprits for the execution time). Executing in the opposite order as memo doesn't throw me at all in 3bld but it's weirder when I'm walking my locations in multi. I'm not sure I want to reverse the memo order for fear it'll throw a wrench into 3bld. Maybe I just need to swap where I put my edges and corners so it works out linear when going back through.

I'm also curious to hear any particular successful tricks any of you might have incorporated for loci. My method is bare-bones: a linear list of locations each with a spot for corner memo and edge memo. I know a lot of people also have another spot to track twisted/flipped pieces separately. I'd love to hear any other novel things you folks might be doing that has proved helpful, the procedure is new to me and I'm adding puzzles much more quickly than expected.

 

[openseas]

Day 2 almost finished.

4/5/MBLD all failed, but very close.
4BLD off by the last corner cycle unsetup error (silly me, LD’’d instead of D’L for the last move). 5BLD, one wing setup error threw me off, MBLD, 3/11. 7 DNF, all by one cycle off or flipped edges. Since it was my first official 10+ attempt, concerned on times but it was ok. Didn’t need to rush. Need more drilling on comms - reversed comms were the main issue.

3BLD 2nd round, 2 success which is my success rate PB -). The first one, realized used a wrong comm (again), went back twice. Otherwise could have been a little bit better time but well, a success is a success. 3rd one, traced wrong, so redid memo, tried to make it solved.

BTW, Jeff got another 17s (not his PB though) but Max got WR 17.55 with the same scramble. They also have multiple UWR 2 man BLD relay of 34s (14 + 19). Looks like the best BLD couple in the world